This blog began as a record of taking the WSET Diploma, during which I studied and explored wines and spirits made all around the world. Having passed the Diploma and become a WSET Certified Educator, the blog has become much more: a continual outlet for my passion for the culture of wine, spirits, and beer.
I aim to educate in an informal, enlightening, and engaging manner. As well as maintaining this blog to track my latest enthusiasms, I provide educational tastings for restaurants and for private groups. Details can be found on the website, and collaborations are welcome.
Wine is my primary interest and area of expertise and this blog aims to immerse the reader in the history of wine, to understand why wine tastes like it does, and to explore all the latest news. At the same time, beer and spirits will never be ignored.
For the drinker, whether casual or professional, today is a good time to be alive.
All in bodies of water
The Pacific Ocean’s name comes from “peaceful”—and often it is, cooling the warm climates of California and Chile. But it can be violent too, bringing in rain, cyclones, and tsunamis from earthquakes. The largest ocean in the world with around 25,000 islands, it influences wine regions in many different ways.
New podcast series: Bodies of Water, which examines how rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans affect growing conditions and therefore the styles of wine of many regions across the world. The first episode is on the Atlantic Ocean, which has a direct influence on seemingly very different regions from Bordeaux to Rías Baixas to Uruguay to Long Island—These wine regions would not be what they are were it not for the Atlantic.
